From: BNET.com - Electric Perspectives, May/Jun 2000
Use a little electricity to turn on your computer and hook up to the Internet, and you can save a lot of energy and vastly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
That's the conclusion of "The Internet Economy and Global Warming: A Scenario of the Impact of ECommerce on Energy and the Environment," a study that has drawn increased attention since it was initially released last December. Although its conclusions about future growth in electricity demand and the Kyoto Protocol remain controversial, it is yet another refutation of the notion, popularized decades ago by critics of electric companies, that the only good kilowatt is a kilowatt saved.
The study prepared by the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions (cECS), argues that the emerging Internet economy probably deserves substantial credit for the nation's shifting energy diet. While the U.S. economy grew more than 9 percent in 1997 and 1998, energy demand stayed almost flat in spite of low energy prices.
Perhaps a third of this gain in energy efficiency is attributable to expansion in economic sectors with relatively modest energy needs-especially the double-digit growth in information technology But the bulk of the gain reflects economy-wide efficiency improvements made possible in part by the Internet.
The authors point to e-commerce as one of the many ways in which the Internet saves energy and natural resources. For example, when a consumer purchases a book from Amazon.com rather than from a "bricks-and-mortar" store, about one-sixteenth as much energy is consumed. In part, this is because it takes less energy to heat and light a warehouse than a commercial building catering to the public.
What's more, it takes less energy to ship the book to the online consumer than if he or she drove to the mall.
Telecommuting has been made possible by the Internet-fostered boom in home offices. The study cites an International Data Corporation forecast that the number of home offices linked to the Internet will grow from 12 million in 1997 to 30 million in 2002. Home offices use far less energy than office buildings, and telecommuting reduces automobile travel.
The Internet reduces energy use, as well as hazardous waste, in the manufacturing sector. For example, while the paperless economy has not materialized (nor is likely to any time soon), the Internet is helping to reduce growth in consumption of paper. Paper manufacturing is one of the nation's most energy-intensive processes. By 2003, the Internet will reduce net demand for paper by 2.7 million tons compared to what it would have been, the study says, citing an analysis by the Boston Consulting Group.
The cECS study can be viewed online at coolcomanies.org
Copyright Edison Electric Institute May/Jun 2000
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment